The state of Israel is “an advance post of the pioneering efforts of humanity,” according to Thcmas Sugrue, American author who just returned from a five-month tour of the Jewish state. Sugrue, who has teen confined to a wheelchair for the past decade, literally traveled from Dan to Beersheba in search of material for a new book.

The Irishman from Connecticut, in a newspaper interview, defined the new state as “an attempt mentally, spiritually and socially to break into a higher sphere of living.” Pointing to the history of the Jews during the past 2,000 years, Sugrue asserted that as a result of their constant wanderings about the world “they were able to bring back with them from their exile the “best in techniques, in sciences, in social theory, in ethics and philosophy – abstract riches to which they themselves had contributed heavily.”

The author, who had talked with all sorts of Israeli citizens, including Premier David Ben Gurion and farmers, workers, professionals and housewives, declared that he “found them easier to be with than any people I have known.They are gentle, modest, friendly, intelligent, curious, cultured, but above all, happy – in love with their farms and wanting only to remain with them, and to make them again a land flowing in milk and honey.”